Is the cost of healthcare in the US ridiculous? Yes. However, the main reason why costs are so high is due to 2 reasons:
1: Research and development happens here more so than other countries. That is very expensive and the US population pays for this.
2: We have doctors and hospitals that will treat patients that would be a lost cause in other countries. If you are seriously ill, America is the place where you will have the best chance of getting better. While this might not be the best cost to benefit ratio, many people from other countries travel here when they have no other options. To these people, the exorbitant cost of healthcare was worth it.
Don't get me wrong, we could cut costs by reducing price gouging and profits at the corporate level, but there are reasons why medicine and care cost so much in the U.S.
I think you're shortchanging the amount of medical research that happens in Europe and Asia, and very successfully. Cuba, which is not an economic powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination, has had some remarkable innovations in medicine and biotech.
Yes, the issues you cite are some of the justifications for the high cost of medicine in the US but that's not the whole story by any stretch of the imagination. The one thing the US does differently from every other industrialized nation is that it doesn't allow the government to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies or health care providers. We need someone with clout to negotiate on our behalf, and insurance companies aren't doing it. Rather, they're using that lack of oversight to boost their own profits in collusion with the health care industry. This is a problem that the Affordable Care Act barely begins to address, and what little it does has US conservatives crying foul.
Is the cost of healthcare in the US ridiculous? Yes. However, the main reason why costs are so high is due to 2 reasons:
1: Research and development happens here more so than other countries. That is very expensive and the US population pays for this. 2: We have doctors and hospitals that will treat patients that would be a lost cause in other countries. If you are seriously ill, America is the place where you will have the best chance of getting better. While this might not be the best cost to benefit ratio, many people from other countries travel here when they have no other options. To these people, the exorbitant cost of healthcare was worth it.
Don't get me wrong, we could cut costs by reducing price gouging and profits at the corporate level, but there are reasons why medicine and care cost so much in the U.S.
I think you're shortchanging the amount of medical research that happens in Europe and Asia, and very successfully. Cuba, which is not an economic powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination, has had some remarkable innovations in medicine and biotech.
Yes, the issues you cite are some of the justifications for the high cost of medicine in the US but that's not the whole story by any stretch of the imagination. The one thing the US does differently from every other industrialized nation is that it doesn't allow the government to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies or health care providers. We need someone with clout to negotiate on our behalf, and insurance companies aren't doing it. Rather, they're using that lack of oversight to boost their own profits in collusion with the health care industry. This is a problem that the Affordable Care Act barely begins to address, and what little it does has US conservatives crying foul.
Your last point about Governments negotiating with pharma to help set prices is very interesting. Is that what Medicare does?
No, thanks to Congress Medicare is expressly forbidden from engaging in negotiations with pharmaceuticals.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/04...-prices-negotiate-editorials-debates/7943745/
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statement...sam-barred-bargaining-medicare-drug-prices-s/
Cuba, which is not an economic powerhouse ..the funding came from somewhere